Biography of Alexei Gorshkov

Coach Alexei Gorshkov: “Behind the clouds - the sky” on May 04 we know about many coaches by their students. Alexey Gorshkov prepared a lot of world champions among juniors, winners of European championships, the Grand Prix, winners of world championships, large tournaments. But few people know how the coaching fate of Alexei Gorshkov took shape that his father was a wonderful cycling trainer that during the perestroika of Gorshkov worked with the national team in North Korea, and later five years in Bulgaria.

And how many times in his coaching career there were situations when, according to him, it was necessary to push off his feet from the bottom and go upstairs. He was a good cycling trainer, and I spent all my childhood on cycling. I traveled with my father on a motorcycle in front of a peloton or in a technician, which accompanied the riders. Dad spent all his free time at the base - in the basement of our house where we lived in Sverdlovsk, now it is Yekaterinburg.

Father coached the guys, prepared bicycles. As far as I remember, my dad never sat idle. At 30, his father lost his leg. This happened at competitions in Grozny. One of the racer forgot his bicycle shoes, his father went to the hotel with him, and on the way back their motorcycle ran into a tractor. The father saved the guy, maneuvered, but his father could not avoid the clash, he could not actively train, as before, he could no longer, and spent most of his time at the base.

When this happened, I was five years old ... Dad did not lose heart. Later he made a prosthesis so that he could walk. He continued to live in sports, and gave me this love. Probably, I would also engage in cycling, but they took older guys there, so they gave me to figure skating. The Lokomotiv skating rink was next to our house, and this played a key role ... Dad died at 38.

A man gathered at his funeral - all on bicycles. They loved his father, he was a cool coach. I still maintain relations with his friends, students - we meet when I come to Yekaterinburg. Probably, the fact that I also became a coach continued my father’s business, there is some higher meaning in this. I don’t know ... Mom steadfastly endured all life hardships - a strong character. She was not a professional athlete, but all her life is somehow connected with sports.

From Yekaterinburg, we transported my mother to Odintsovo ... Once the journalist Arthur Werner, and he is from Sverdlovsk, wrote a critical article about me. So in this article, my mother was awarded the characteristics of the "sweet good woman." And until now, when I call my mother, I say: “Hello, a sweet good woman, like well -being” ... I began to engage in figure skating for six years.

Started like everyone else, with a single. My first coach was Natalya Karpovich. Now she lives in Moscow, we still call up. When he became older, he moved to Tatyana Rozhina. We had a “inflatable” rink, that is, ice was poured and a structure was erected above it in the form of an inflatable dome and walls. Rozhina believed that good athletes should patronize those who think poorly.

At one time, among these, I turned out to be - Sinitsyn was entrusted with me. We still laugh that Rostik, being an athlete himself, trained me. Nevertheless, Rozhina noticed me and said: "You will go to Sportinternate." By today's standards, this is the school of the Olympic reserve. They took there from the 4th grade. From this moment, my active life began in figure skating.

We began to train at the "Youth". I went little to all the figure skating competitions that took place in Sverdlovsk. I still remember that. When I was taken to the boarding school, I immediately went into dancing. Tatyana Rozhina, along with her pairs, left for Dnepropetrovsk, and Elena Mashnova, Irina Zhdanova worked with us ... Then Alik Epstein returned from Dnepropetrovsk, and from that moment I turned on very actively.

Why is that period interesting? Oleg worked at a very high level. He himself was a wonderful rider, an interesting talented person, invested in students. I did not remember the name of my first partner. After he stood in a couple with Tatyana Mikhailova, but she left the sport due to an injury. We began to ride with Natasha Zykova, Alik trained us. In Sverdlovsk at that time there was a very cool school of figure skating.

And a kind word here we must mention Igor Borisovich Ksenofontov - a man who gave me a lot in terms of understanding figure skating. Not at the moment when I rode myself, but later, when he became a coach. It was a real center of figure skating, where there was real life. The inspirer and organizer was xenophores. And it’s great that everything pledged to him today continues to live in his followers, students, students of students.

The xenophores was one of those coaches who believed that the result could not be achieved from under the stick, orders and even money. Only with a conviction, competent work, when the students come to the students that they need it themselves, then the tasks, goals, work begins.They taught me Viktor Nikolaevich a lot of me how to divide the technical component into segments, see the picture, and understand what can be corrected and improved.

With Alexei Nikolayevich Mishin, we talked closely when we went from the stage to the stage of junior and adult Grand Prix, together we held fees and seminars. Our athletes were part of the junior national team of the country. And in the junior team there was always a special spirit, the best specialists, and this was strong, because at an adult level there is no longer such openness.

Mishin read me his books, explained, told, sometimes complained that he had gone to the development of problems, and now all this can be easily studied by video. Nevertheless, Igor Borisovich Ksenofontov gave me the first impetus in the understanding of the coaching profession. I began to train early, at the age of 20. With sports I finished at that time I had a family - Lucy's wife studied at the institute, trained.

We had a daughter Nastya. The family had to feed our couple with Natasha Zykova entered the top ten, but there were very strong duets ahead, which could not be overcome. They represented the Moscow region, we - Sverdlovsk, often intersected in tournaments. We made friends with Igor - at first we competed as athletes, then our students competed. Igor had adult couples a little earlier, and I asked, consulted what and how to do.

Then, in difficult life periods, we helped each other. I came to him in America, worked with his students, they came to Odintsovo. The project manager was still Igor Ksenofontov. The coaches worked - Oleg Epstein, the young were pulling up. I got a couple of Olga Sharutenko - Dmitry Naumkin. In m, they will become world champions among juniors ... In Pervouralsk, foreign skaters constantly came to the training camp.

The Chinese are the coach of the national team Yao Bin, Zhao Hongbo with his first partner. Later, Zhao will steam with a Shen and they will win two bronze medals at the Olympiads, and in Vancouver they will win gold. There were skaters and coaches from North Korea. I then made them a program, and they offered to go to work for them. To be honest, I didn’t really want to leave my guys Sharutenko with Naumkin.

But then we worked as a team, and I asked how they would react to my departure? They told me, do not worry, go. And together with Lucy for 8 months we went to North Korea. I needed to build all the work myself almost from scratch. Five dance couples of the national team. Every day two workouts are 2.5 hours, the hall, the OFP ... There is no one to consult with, the phone call is $ 40 a minute.

There was no Internet then. There is practically no information. In short, hit. But all these circumstances quickly weeded me. After weeks, I already started talking in Korean. I contacted the guys from our embassy, ​​they helped with video cassettes of ballroom dancing, ballets, and performances. By the way, we still communicate, although so much time has passed. I met the Europeans who worked in Pyongyang, although there were few of them.